Group networking utilizing screening methods

ABSTRACT

A method to generate a group of entities from a plurality of participating entities, the method comprising: one of the participating entities expressing by indication which others of the participating entities they wish to meet; selecting to be a first member of the group an entity which has indicated at least one other of the participating entities it wishes to meet; adding a new entity to the group by selecting the new entity from the set of indications of the last member added to the group.

The present invention relates generally to generating groups to meet,enabling entities to meet other entities more effectively.

In a further form the present invention relates to a networking systemand, more particularly, suited, although not exclusively, to businessnetworking within a networked computer environment.

BACKGROUND

Meeting is arranged most commonly by methods like cold calling,exhibition, advertisement or through an intermediary party like anemployment agency.

A problem which many salesmen, employers, employees, suppliers andinvestors face is that of making that vital first appointment to presentand sell their ideas, goods, or indeed, themselves.

A “brute force” solution to the problem is what is sometimes known ascold calling wherein prospective clients or business partners are simplyrung or otherwise approached without any specific invitation to do soand in the hope that the contact will nevertheless lead to a businessrelationship.

More general forms include exhibitions, seminars and membership ofbusiness associations.

Problems with these approaches include:

-   1. Cold calling generally produces negligible positive results;-   2. Exhibitions only occur once every so often;-   3. Business associations and membership of them does not of itself    guarantee any form of common interest between the members sufficient    to trigger business interaction.

It is an object of at least preferred embodiments of the presentinvention to address or ameliorate one or more of the above mentionedproblems.

It is the aim of the present invention in at least preferred forms tosupplement the above. It can be effective because there is no need tohave elaborate set up like exhibitions; no need to go through thepainful process of cold calling, no high expenses of advertisements oran intermediate agency.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

In this specification the phrase “link of indications” is a linearlinkage of entities such that if entity A follows another entity B thenA is in the set of indications of B.

Accordingly, in one broad form of the invention there is provided amethod to generate a group of entities from a plurality of participatingentities, said method comprising:

-   (a) One of said participating entities expressing by indication    which others of said participating entities they wish to meet;-   (b) Selecting to be a first member of the group an entity which has    indicated at least one other of said participating entities it    wishes to meet;-   (c) Adding a new entity to the group by selecting said new entity    from the set of indications of the last member added to said group.

Preferably indications of an entity are the set of other entities thatsaid entity indicated it is interested in meeting.

Preferably the method further comprises repeatedly adding new membersuntil at least one indication of the set of indications of the last newmember added to said group includes one of the current members of thegroup.

Preferably the method further comprises using a look ahead method ofchoosing which one of the set of indications to choose from the last newmember where the look ahead consists of N generations.

Preferably the first generation is the set of indications of the lastnew member and the Nth generation is the set of entities combined fromthe set of indications of all of the entities of N−1 generation.

Preferably if one of the entity (named X) from the first generation tothe N generation is a member of the group, then the look ahead hassucceeded and the new members added to the group will consist of the setof entities that follows the link of indications from the last newmember to the entity that has said entity named X as a member of its setof indications.

Preferably the method further comprises using a look back method ofchoosing which one of the set of indications to choose from the last newmember where the look back consists of N generations.

Preferably the first generation is the set of entities whose set ofindications includes at least one of the current members of the groupand the Nth generation is the set of entities whose set of indicationsinclude one of the entity of the N−1 generation.

Preferably if one entity (named X) from the first generation to the Ngeneration is also the last new member of the group, then the look backhas succeeded and the new members added to the group will consist of theset of entities that follows the link of indications from the last newmember which is also said entity named X back to the first generation ofthe look back.

Preferably the method further comprises a combined look ahead andbackwards; said method consisting of looking ahead N generations andlooking backwards M generations where if there is an entity X that iscommon to the look ahead from 1 to N generations and the look back isfrom 1 to M generations, then the combined look ahead and backwards hassucceeded and the new members added to the group will consist of the setof entities that follows the link of indications from the last newmember to X and from X to the first generation of the look back.

Preferably the method further comprises repeatedly increasing N and M bysteps of amount N1 and M1 until the combined look ahead and backwardshas succeeded or N or M equal or exceed a predetermined value.

Preferably the entities under consideration are already pre-selected forin terms of having already indicated a common time and a common place tomeet.

Preferably the method further comprises stopping the process ofgeneration of new members of said group when the quantity of members ofthe group reaches a predetermined quantity.

In a preferred form the entities are people.

In an alternative preferred form the entities are corporations.

In a further preferred form the entities are corporations or people.

In a further broad form of the invention there is provided a system togenerate groups to meet for the purpose of enabling participatingentities to meet others of said participating entities more effectively,the system comprising:

a computer readable storage medium;

linkages to said participating entities by input/output devices;

wherein the particulars of said participating entities and indicationscan be fed in and stored in the computer readable storage medium andresultant groups generated posted to the entities via the sameinput/output devices; and computer programming stored on the storagemedium.

Preferably the computer programming stored on said system is configuredto be readable from the computer readable storage medium by a computerand thereby cause the computer to operate so as to:

pick an entity to be the first member of the group; add a new entity tothe group by picking it from the set of indications of the last newmember of group, where the set of indications of an entity are the setof other entities that an entity indicated it is interested in.

Preferably the process of generating groups is stopped when the quantityof the member of the group equals or exceeds a specific quantity.

Preferably the stored computer programming is further configured tocause the computer to operate so as to:

repeatedly add new members until the set of indications of the last newmember include one of the current member of the group.

Preferably the stored computer programming is further configured tocause the computer to operate as to:

use a look ahead method of choosing which one of the set of indicationsto choose from the last new member where the look ahead consist of Ngenerations.

Preferably the first generation is the set of indications of the lastnew member and the Nth generation is the set of entities combined fromthe set of indications of all of the entities of N−1 generation.

Preferably if one of the entity named X from the first generation to theN generation is a member of the group, then the look ahead has succeededand the new members added to the group will consist of the set ofentities that follow the link of indications from the last new member tothe entity that has X as a member of its set of indications.

Preferably the stored computer programming is further configured tocause the computer to operate so as to:

use a look back method of choosing which one of the set of indicationsto choose from the last new member where the look back consists of Ngenerations.

Preferably the first generation is the set of entities whose set ofindications includes at least one of the current members of the groupand the Nth generation is the set of entities whose set of indicationsinclude one of the entities of the N−1 generation.

Preferably if one of the entities now named X from the first generationto the N generation is also the last new member the group then the lookback has succeeded and the new members added to the group will consistof the set of entities that follows the link of indications from thelast new member which is also X back to the first generation of the lookback.

Preferably the stored computer programming is further configured tocause the computer to operate so as to:

have a combined look ahead and back; said system consisting of lookingahead N generations and looking backwards M generations where if thereis an entity X that is common to the look ahead from 1 to N generationsand the look back from 1 to M generations then the combined look aheadand back has succeeded and the new members added to the group willconsist of the set of entities that follow the link of indications fromthe last new member to X and from X to the first generation of the lookback;

Preferably the system further includes repeatedly increasing N and M bysteps of amount K until the combined look has succeeded or N or Mexceeds a given value.

Preferably the stored computer programming is further configured tocause the computer to operate so as to:

enable the entities under consideration to be preselected for in termsof having already indicated a common time and place.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described withreference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system according to a first preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of entities and their indications operable inassociation with the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of group formed from the entities in FIG. 2following the system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Broadly, preferred forms of the present invention relate generally to asystem and apparatus for generating groups to meet from amongstparticipating entities.

In a computerized method, entities that are participating would indicatewhich other entities they wish to meet. An individual is then selectedto be the seed to grow the group that is to meet. This could be byvarious methods such as indicating directly or screening bycharacteristics or a combination screening and indicating or any othermeans. Each new member is added to the group from the entities that arein the indications of the latest entity that has joined the group. Theprocess ends when the last entity added has in its indications a memberthat is already a member of the group or the group has reached apre-determined maximum size.

To speed up the process, a look ahead, a look back as well as combinelook are proposed. In one form the entities may be people. In anotheraspect the entities may be corporations. In another form aspect of theinvention, the entities can be either corporations or people.

With reference to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a “groupfor meeting” generating system. The system includes a central server(CS) that is use to store the database (DB). The input/output devices(IO1, IO2, IO3 . . . ) can be computers, mobile phones or any othersuitable data input devices.

The network can be either a local area network, the internet or anyother suitable medium for connecting the users to the database.

In one form the database can be implemented as an Access databaserunning under the Microsoft Windows operating system, for example on anIntel platform. More sophisticated software may be utilized where thenumber of participants becomes very large.

The entities in FIG. 2 can register in the database by means of theinput/output devices. They can also by the same means view and givetheir indications of which other entities in the database they wish tomeet.

In FIG. 2 entity A has in its indications the entity B, I, J. Entity Bhas in its indications C, K. This means that A would like to meet B, Ior J. Entity B would like to meet C or K.

The central server can then generate the group by selecting anindividual to be the seed to grow the group that is to meet, in thiscase A.

Each new member is added to the group from the entities that are in theindications of the latest entity that has joined the group. In thisinstance, the process ends when the last entity added has in itsindications a member that is already a member of the group as shown inFIG. 3.

Thus the group will grow in the order A, B, C, D, E with the seed beingA and the last member being E. Note that E has B as a member of itsindications and B also being already a member of the group the processcan stop. This is because each member of the group has at least one ofits indications already in the group.

SUMMARY

In one form, steps in at least some preferred embodiments of the presentinvention can be summarized as follows:

-   1. entities registering themselves in the database-   2. each entity indicates which other entities in the database they    find useful to meet-   3. administrator to form interrelationships for each entity which    have at least one other entity they find useful to meet and to come    together in the same group-   4. The groups are then notified of the place and time of meeting.-   5. Step 1 can be repeated for new entities-   6. Step 2 can be repeated whenever the entities chooses to do so-   7. Step 3 to Step 4 can be repeated regularly.

The above describes only some embodiments of the present invention andmodifications, obvious to those skilled in the art, can be made theretowithout departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

1. A method of generating a group of persons from a plurality ofparticipating persons for enabling networking, said method comprising:(a) each participating person selecting a set of indications, the set ofindications consisting only of at least one other participating personthat said each participating person wishes to meet; (b) recording theset of indications in a database after selecting; (c) processing the setof indications recorded in the database by a computerized system to formthe group, the processing comprising: (i) including as a first member ofthe group any participating person who has indicated at least one otherparticipating person in the set of indications, thereby becoming a firstlast new member of the group; (ii) including the group only one otherparticipating person indicated in the set of indications of the firstlast new member of the group, the one other participating person therebythen becoming the a second last new member of the group after joiningthe group, the second last new member of the group superseding the firstlast new member of the group, so that there is only one last new memberof the group at any point in time; (iii) including in the group only oneother participating person indicated in the set of indications of thesecond last new member of the group, the one other participating personthereby then becoming a third last new member of the group after joiningthe group, the third last new member of the group superseding the secondlast new member of the group, so that there is only one last new memberof the group at any point in time; and (iv) repeatedly including onlyone new person to the group from the set of indications of the last newmember of the group until a new person to be included in the group isalready included in the group.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1,wherein the plurality of participating persons are already pre-selectedin terms of having already indicated a common time and a common place tomeet.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of indications is a listof other participating persons that a participating person wishes tomeet.
 4. A method of generating a group of persons from a plurality ofparticipating persons for enabling networking, said method comprising:(a) each participating person selecting a set of indications, the set ofindications consisting only of at least one other participating personthat said each participating person wishes to meet; (b) recording theset of indications in a database after selecting; (c) processing the setof indications recorded in the database by a computerized system to formthe group, the processing comprising: (i) including as a first member ofthe group any participating person who has indicated at least one otherparticipating person in the set of indications, thereby becoming a firstlast new member of the group; (ii) including the group only one otherparticipating person indicated in the set of indications of the firstlast new member of the group, the one other participating person therebythen becoming a second last new member of the group after joining thegroup, the second last new member of the group superseding the firstlast new member of the group, so method working in such a way that thereis only one last new member of the group at any point in time; (iii)including in the group only one other participating person indicated inthe set of indications of the second last new member of the group, theone other participating person thereby then becoming a third last newmember of the group after joining the group, the third last new memberof the group superseding the second last new member of the group, sothat there is only one last new member of the group at any point intime; and (iv) repeatedly including only one new person the group fromthe set of indications of the last new member of the group until a newperson to be included in the group is already included in the group. 5.The method of claim 4 wherein the set of indications is a list of otherparticipating corporations that a participating corporation wishes tomeet.